The BP Gulf Oil Spill (also called Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill) began on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the Macondo Prospect, off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven people were killed in what is the largest oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. There was a large explosion and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil continued to flow from the gulf floor for 87 days, until July 15, 2010, when it was finally capped, after discharging an estimated 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico waters.
Wesley
The resultant environmental damage and cleanup efforts were immense. Initially, crude oil washed up on 650 miles of shoreline in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, later contaminating additional shoreline in Texas, for a total of 1074 miles of oiled shoreline. Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico was closed for some time in 88,522 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico. Two million gallons of chemical dispersants were used in an attempt to reduce the amount of oil reaching the shore. 411 surface burns were conducted by the Coast Guard and BP, resulting in the incineration of 11 million gallons of oil. Marine bacteria did decompose some of the petroleum, but the rest has just dispersed elsewhere in the seas or in the air. Bacteria were used to help reduce the oil spill. A genetically altered Alcanivorax borkumensis bacterium was added to the water in hopes of speeding digestion of the oil.
The Gulf of Mexico coast took a very hard impact from this oil spill. The regional economy is very reliant on the gulf. Besides oil, fishing and tourism are the main components of the economy. The devastation of the local economy was tremendous. Much of the surface oil was cleaned up by December 2012, but more than half of the 210 million gallons that was spilled remained underwater, in the Gulf of Mexico.
Land
Health risks to humans was a great concern. In addition to the eleven who were killed during the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig, many thousands of persons were exposed to the toxins from the oil itself and the chemicals used in the cleanup efforts. The magnitude of exposure was much greater than in any prior oil spill. All five elements of a complete exposure pathway were present, which include sources of contaminants, environmental media, points of exposure, routes of exposure, and the receptor population.
Data was gathered by OSHA concerning the exposure of cleanup workers both in boats offshore and on the beaches. According to OSHA, most of the health issues suffered by the cleanup workers were related to heat rather than chemical exposure. Yet cleanup workers have continued to complain of health problems including chest pain, nausea, racing heartbeat, respiratory problems and skin irritations, including open sores. Workers complained of “feeling funky” and coughing. Other health related issues besides worker safety and toxicological effects in workers, visitors and local members of the communities include mental health effects from social and economic disruption and effects on the ecosystem.
Most of the environmental impact was on more than 400 marine species that live in the Gulf of Mexico waters or on the adjacent shore. It could take decades for the region to fully recover. The actual recorded impact on the local flora and fauna appears to be less in the short-haul than might have been expected. A NASA physicist did report “a dearth of marine life” in a 50-mile radius around the spill, with no turtles, few dolphins, rays and sharks fourteen months after the spill was capped. Even now, tar balls wash up on the Mississippi coast. It has also been reported that there have been a large number of mutated and deformed fish and other sea creatures, having no eyes, clawless crabs and fish with deformities and oozing sores.
There has been a heavy advertising campaign telling potential visitors that things have returned to normal along the shoreline effected by the oil spill, but only time will tell if visitors are willing to return in the numbers that they once came.
Sources
Goldstein, B. D., Osofsky, H. J., Lichtveld, M. Y. (2011). The Gulf oil spill. The New England Journal of Medicine 364(13), 1334-1348.
Klemas, V. (2010). Tracking oil slicks and predicting their trajectories using remote sensors and models: case studies of the Sea Princess and Deepwater Horizon oil spills. Journal of Coastal Research 26//(5), 789-797.
The BP Gulf Oil Spill (also called Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill) began on April 20, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico on the Macondo Prospect, off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven people were killed in what is the largest oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. There was a large explosion and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank into the Gulf of Mexico. Oil continued to flow from the gulf floor for 87 days, until July 15, 2010, when it was finally capped, after discharging an estimated 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico waters.Wesley
The resultant environmental damage and cleanup efforts were immense. Initially, crude oil washed up on 650 miles of shoreline in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, later contaminating additional shoreline in Texas, for a total of 1074 miles of oiled shoreline. Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico was closed for some time in 88,522 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico. Two million gallons of chemical dispersants were used in an attempt to reduce the amount of oil reaching the shore. 411 surface burns were conducted by the Coast Guard and BP, resulting in the incineration of 11 million gallons of oil. Marine bacteria did decompose some of the petroleum, but the rest has just dispersed elsewhere in the seas or in the air. Bacteria were used to help reduce the oil spill. A genetically altered Alcanivorax borkumensis bacterium was added to the water in hopes of speeding digestion of the oil.
The Gulf of Mexico coast took a very hard impact from this oil spill. The regional economy is very reliant on the gulf. Besides oil, fishing and tourism are the main components of the economy. The devastation of the local economy was tremendous. Much of the surface oil was cleaned up by December 2012, but more than half of the 210 million gallons that was spilled remained underwater, in the Gulf of Mexico.
Land
Health risks to humans was a great concern. In addition to the eleven who were killed during the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig, many thousands of persons were exposed to the toxins from the oil itself and the chemicals used in the cleanup efforts. The magnitude of exposure was much greater than in any prior oil spill. All five elements of a complete exposure pathway were present, which include sources of contaminants, environmental media, points of exposure, routes of exposure, and the receptor population.
Data was gathered by OSHA concerning the exposure of cleanup workers both in boats offshore and on the beaches. According to OSHA, most of the health issues suffered by the cleanup workers were related to heat rather than chemical exposure. Yet cleanup workers have continued to complain of health problems including chest pain, nausea, racing heartbeat, respiratory problems and skin irritations, including open sores. Workers complained of “feeling funky” and coughing. Other health related issues besides worker safety and toxicological effects in workers, visitors and local members of the communities include mental health effects from social and economic disruption and effects on the ecosystem.
Most of the environmental impact was on more than 400 marine species that live in the Gulf of Mexico waters or on the adjacent shore. It could take decades for the region to fully recover. The actual recorded impact on the local flora and fauna appears to be less in the short-haul than might have been expected. A NASA physicist did report “a dearth of marine life” in a 50-mile radius around the spill, with no turtles, few dolphins, rays and sharks fourteen months after the spill was capped. Even now, tar balls wash up on the Mississippi coast. It has also been reported that there have been a large number of mutated and deformed fish and other sea creatures, having no eyes, clawless crabs and fish with deformities and oozing sores.
There has been a heavy advertising campaign telling potential visitors that things have returned to normal along the shoreline effected by the oil spill, but only time will tell if visitors are willing to return in the numbers that they once came.
Sources
Goldstein, B. D., Osofsky, H. J., Lichtveld, M. Y. (2011). The Gulf oil spill. The New England Journal of Medicine 364(13), 1334-1348.
http://publicdomainclip-art.blogspot.com/2010/06/deepwater-horizon-bp-oil-spill-slick_09.html
Klemas, V. (2010). Tracking oil slicks and predicting their trajectories using remote sensors and models: case studies of the Sea Princess and Deepwater Horizon oil spills. Journal of Coastal Research 26//(5), 789-797.
Land, G. (2010). Deepwater death: the Gulf Oil Spill 3 years on. Retrieved November 1, 2013 from http://gf1.statico.be/wp-content//uploads/2013/04/bp-oil-spill-clean-up.jpg
Wesley, D. (2013). Cost & effects of the BP oil spill. Retrieved October 30, 2013 from http://visualeconomics.creditloan.com/cost-effects-of-the-bp-oil-spill_2010-05-05/
Victoria Cifers